Our first border crossing with the van was at Frontera La Mesilla, going from Mexico into Guatemala. We were not sure how it would go with us having a Mexican plated car, so wanted to get to the border crossing early. We had read on iOverlander that the border is less busy in the mornings.

We left San Cristobal on Friday afternoon and drove to Lagos de Colon, a well located campsite close to the border crossing. Lagos de Colon consists of three springs, three rivers and 44 lakes, and some Mayan ruins. We arrived just on dusk and were surprised how built up the complex was at the entrance. We paid a small fee to enter the park, and started looking for a place to camp for the night.

We are good to go

Glen checking the water level before we cross

After crossing two fords we found a lovely secluded campsite by a river that we had to ourselves.

The next morning after a refreshing swim in the river we headed for the border.

The first stop was at Mexican Immigration, we needed to get a stamp to say we had left the country. On entering the building and handing over our passports we were told we needed to pay 533 pesos per person (about $50 NZD each). We felt that this payment might have been a bit of a scam, as you could not pay by visa, there was not receipt, and not everyone has to pay it.  We paid what pesos we had on us, got our departure stamp, and drove off towards the Guatemala border.

At the Guatemala border it was carnage, there were people every where, along with dogs, tuk tuks, and markets stalls. It wasn’t clear exactly where we were meant to go, or park, until an old boy flagged us down.

Our first stop at the Guatemala border was getting the van fumigated, this cost about 40 quetzals. Slight problem we had no quetzals?! We asked if we could pay by visa card, but it was cash only.   They let Jeanette go over the border and walk to the bank about a 1km up the road. She found an ATM and got some much needed quetzals.

After paying for the fumigation we were sent to another office to complete our arrival documentation, and get our passports stamped.  That was straight forward, we now had a 90 day tourist visa.

Completing the arrival documentation

We made it – hola Guatemala!

Next was sorting out the permit for the van. This meant another office, more documentation, showing the vehicle title to confirm we were the owners of the van, Glens drivers licence and a visit to the bank to pay the 160 quetzal fee for bringing in a vehicle. After a quick inspection of the van, and photo copies of all our documentation, our vehicle permit sticker was attached to our windscreen and we were on our way.

Phew what a relief!! All up it took an hour and a half. It was good that our first border crossing went smoothly, and we now know what to expect.

Our first impressions of Guatemala was that it still felt like Mexico, however after about an hour driving into the hill country we started to see just how much poorer Guatemala was than Mexico.

After a couple of hours driving we stopped in a small town called San Francisco for lunch.  We found a fantastic taco stand selling delicious pork tacos – Glen had six!

With full bellies and some quetzals in our back pocket we carried on driving up through the mountains of Guatemala. The scenery was stunning, and yet still we climbed……….finally making it to 3000 metres, the highest either of us had been in a vehicle.

We had planned to only drive for three hours after the border crossing, and spend the night at some hot springs in the mountains. When we saw the turn off for the hot springs ( down a very steep road) we decided to keep going. It meant a long day driving, but we made it to Lake Atitlan around 5pm. That was after blowing out our brakes on the steep decent into Santa Clara and having to stop for 30 minutes while we waited for them to cool down. I think at one stage on the final steep down hill into San Marcos, Lake Aititlan Glen stopped breathing, he was so concerned about the brakes. We were glad to get to our destination Pasaj Cap with our van and brakes still in one piece!